Currently, handheld terminals are built to contain multiple radios. One of the radios requires at least two diversity antennas that help mitigate the effects of deep fades. Other radios require only one antenna. For a handheld device to operate without significant degradation in performance there must be significant isolation between the antennas of the multiple radios. 40 decibels (dB) of isolation may be required. Building and operating a handheld terminal with a total of three or more antennas that have significant isolation between each antenna is difficult. The systems that have antenna configurations with three or more antennas, presently used in PDA's, exhibit problems related to increased size, higher cost, interference, poor performance, etc. Previous attempts to build a device with fewer than three antennas have encountered problems due to deep fades.
What are needed are handheld devices that exhibit good performance in smaller sizes, have higher reliability, and exhibit more versatile hardware configurations.